place you pan in there during the cycle... and pray to what ever gods you choose.

once it is out and cool wipe it with lard inside and out and put it in several paper bags and take it home.

then place a 1/4 cup of lard in the pan and place it in a 300 degree oven for 3 hours. pour our the excess after 3 hours and use it to wipe the entire skillet paper towel will work just fine. invert and place back in oven and allow to cool over night.

for the next several months anytime you use the skillet you will wipe it completely out with lard.

the only thing you will use to clean it is a steel scrubby with salt after cooking, wipe it out with lard
never EVER put it near water
Never ever put vegetable oils on your precious (to keep it seasoned, it is fine to cook with if you are into that sort of thing).

I've found the cast iron pan I have to be a pain in the butt. I've tried everything every one has suggested and everything still sticks to it. I have a vegetarian friend that uses cast iron pans; she cooks with olive oil and she cleans her pans with soap! Her pans look great and the food doesn't stick! Why is that?

I've found the cast iron pan I have to be a pain in the butt. I've tried everything every one has suggested and everything still sticks to it. I have a vegetarian friend that uses cast iron pans; she cooks with olive oil and she cleans her pans with soap! Her pans look great and the food doesn't stick! Why is that?

I've found the cast iron pan I have to be a pain in the butt. I've tried everything every one has suggested and everything still sticks to it. I have a vegetarian friend that uses cast iron pans; she cooks with olive oil and she cleans her pans with soap! Her pans look great and the food doesn't stick! Why is that?

My father in law washes his cast with soap after each use and then greases the cooking surface and heats the pan back up. After it has heated for a bit, he sticks it in the oven until it is needed again. Nothing sticks and he has been cooking on the same cast for like 18 years. I have been wanting to give it a try but an leary after all of my conditioning to never wash cast iron. I'm currently rehabbing a 18inch cast iron pan that I picked up at a yardsale over the summer and I am going to try his method on it to compare.

I've done none of the above. Bought a perseasoned Lodge pan on Amazon, started cooking. Everything stuck...and now nothing does. Not for much, anyway. Never soap it. If I make faux fried rice with cauli-rice, I rinse it out with water to get the little pieces out, then wipe and oil. It takes time, but NOTHING cooks like cast iron.

place you pan in there during the cycle... and pray to what ever gods you choose.

once it is out and cool wipe it with lard inside and out and put it in several paper bags and take it home.

then place a 1/4 cup of lard in the pan and place it in a 300 degree oven for 3 hours. pour our the excess after 3 hours and use it to wipe the entire skillet paper towel will work just fine. invert and place back in oven and allow to cool over night.

for the next several months anytime you use the skillet you will wipe it completely out with lard.

the only thing you will use to clean it is a steel scrubby with salt after cooking, wipe it out with lard
never EVER put it near water
Never ever put vegetable oils on your precious (to keep it seasoned, it is fine to cook with if you are into that sort of thing).

My food gets stuck all the time, basically. Okay, not all the time. I have yet to figure out what does and doesn't make it stick. I rinse with hot water while it's still hot after cooking to clean it out because everything gets sludgy and sticks on, but from what I'm reading, most of you say to use salt to get that residue out instead.

My small cast iron is doing fine, pretty well seasoned at this point, but the big one just won't take anything. I can actually see discolored spots, like seasoning flaked off a long time ago in some spots and it won't take anymore.

Olive oil worked the best for me on the smaller pan, but I'm still having inconsistent results on the big one.

quelson is spot on. No easyoff or any other cleaner like that cause it will permeate the metal. I like his idea of putting it in a self cleaning oven. That should burn off any residue that is preventing the seasoning from sticking.